The first platform game I ever played was Pitfall on the Atari 2600 back in 1982.
Of course, at the time I never thought of it as a platform game.
But that’s what it was, in fact it essentially set the standard for platform games.
Later on I played Donkey Kong on both Atari and Commodore platforms.
This is, of course, before Nintendo started keeping their best stuff proprietary to their
own console.
And by 1984 I was playing Pitfall II on my Commodore 64.
As cool as these games were, they were quickly forgotten with the introduction of Super Mario
Brothers for the Nintendo Entertainment system in 1985.
Super Mario Brothers added a few extra concepts to the platform game, most notably the smooth
scrolling feature.
While it was not the first video game to have this feature, as there were a few arcade-only
releases that also had this feature a few years earlier, it was certainly the first
game to popularize this concept on home consoles.
Of course, at the time I owned a Commodore 64, and while I was very proud of it compared
to my friends who owned Nintendo systems, they did have one bragging right, or criticism
of the Commodore 64, in that there was no Super Mario Brothers available.
Of course, there’s no technical limitation that prevented that, rather Nintendo knew
they had a hit on their hands that was driving sales of their own console and had no intention
of porting this game to other home gaming platforms.
The closest thing we ever got was Giana Sisters, which came out in 1987.
The trouble is, this game was pulled from the shelves of stores due to legal pressure
from Nintendo due to its similarity to Super Mario Brothers.
However, most enthusiastic Commodore users ended up with pirated copies of the game,
but the general public remained relatively unaware of it’s existence due to its lack
of visibility on store shelves.
Of course, as more time went on, the Commodore 64 eventually got its fair share of side-scrolling
platform games, with games like Terry’s Big Adventure, then Rainbow Islands, and in
1993 we got Mayhem in Monsterland.
Of course, by this time the Commodore 64 was more or less considered obsolete and most
people had moved onto other platforms.
Still, I think this game had sort of set the bar for Commodore 64 side-scroller games.
And I know there are a few others out there too, so I apologize for not mentioning them
all.
But what I’m here to do today is take a look at 3 brand new platform games.
The first one is Cheese and Onion which is a cartridge for the Commodore VIC-20.
Next, I’ll be looking at Pet Rescue for the Plus/4, and then last I’ll playing Sam’s
Journey for the Commodore 64.
Let’s see if any of these games set the bar again for their respective platforms.
The first game I want to try out is Cheese and Onion for the Commodore VIC-20.
This is a really neatly designed cartridge and sleeve.
The designs on the cardboard really match the design layout that was used for actual
VIC-20 games back in the day.
However, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a yellow cartridge though.
The good part about this game is that it IS a cartridge so there is no need for any memory
expansion, no need for a cassette drive or disk drive.
Just plug it in like a game console.
You will need a joystick, of course, but that’s it.
OK, let’s power it on!
So the first thing we are presented with is the main game menu.
I was curious what background was for.
Ok, it seems to turn off the animated background in case that is something that annoys you,
I guess.
I’m going to start with adventure.
Jetset Land, Dr. Tynehul needs his onions.
OK.
So this is it.
There is a lot I need to say about this game.
I’ll start off by saying I was not able to find any instructions to this game, or
any explanation as to what the game is about, for example, why is it called cheese and onion.
Is there any back story?
I have no idea.
I googled and looked at many websites including the ones that sell this game.
I still came up empty.
On the bright side, it doesn’t take long to figure out how to play the game.
There are certain things to avoid, and certain things you want to collect.
One thing I did notice about the controls that’s kind of interesting.
You only control your character with left, right and the button for jump.
If you move the joystick up or down it actually scrolls your view up or down to match, giving
you bit of a preview of what is above or below.
Eventually you cross into different rooms, or worlds, and the color changes.
And that’s an example of something you want to avoid.
So, let’s try that again.
OK, that’s better.
And these are like decaying platforms that you can’t stand on very long or the disappear,
which is typical of this sort of game.
Skipping ahead a bit, this is apparently how you win levels, by collecting onions.
As you progress through the game you’ll find other interesting things to interact
with.
For example, you can push this little box just where you need it to help you climb up.
And then there’s this weird little wall that you can sort of climb if you keep jumping
on it.
And then there’s this little platform that makes you move really fast.
Also these walls are for more than just climbing, because you can sort of slide down them slowly
so you don’t die.
Anyway, the game itself is a masterpiece for the VIC-20.
I’m not aware of any other game like it on the VIC-20.
And it manages to overcome the VIC-20’s two major weaknesses which is lack of hardware
sprites and lack of hardware smooth scrolling.
I notice that they are using the VIC-20 multi-color mode and seem to be limiting the screen to
4 colors at a time, which I suspect helps a lot not having to mess with the color RAM
while moving stuff around on screen.
Overall I found this game fun to play.
And while this game probably won’t impress your average gamer from a perspective of gameplay,
graphics, or sound effects.
It will definitely impress those who are familiar with the VIC-20 architecture because this
really does set the bar for VIC-20 side-scrolling platform games.
So a big thumbs up for Cheese and Onion.
OK, the next game we’re going to take a look at it is Pets Rescue for the Commodore
Plus/4.
I understand this will also work on the Commodore 16 if you upgrade the memory to 64K.
I’ll go ahead and start the load process.
It’s amazing how fast the disk access is on the Plus/4 with a 1551 disk drive.
And we get to see the 121 colors put to good use.
Well, I was going to play this on the real hardware but I found out that the button on
the joystick isn’t working for whatever reason.
I would just use another joystick but the Plus/4 has a proprietary connector and this
is the only one I have.
I can get an adapter but it would take a while and I’m determined to finish this video,
so I’ll just play this game in the emulator.
The game starts off with a little backstory.
So to summarize a bit for you, apparently this takes place at a veterinary center.
There seems to be a good vet and an evil vet, and the evil vet is messing with DNA and causes
the pets to turn into monsters and they escape.
And so it’s your job to catch them.
This game is extremely well polished.
I mean, just looking at the intro here, I’m very impressed!
So let’s start the game.
This game has a strong resemblance to super Mario brothers, and that’s not a bad thing.
The thing that is absolutely most amazing to me is that this is running on a Plus/4.
This machine has no hardware sprites, but it does at least support smooth scrolling.
The sound is also amazing because this machine has only 2 voices, and yet they’ve managed
to fit several really catchy tunes on here, and mix in sound effects on the fly.
It’s really amazing.
I want to see what happens to this pet after I jump on it.
Ok, apparently it just disappears after a while.
I guess somehow jumping on it cures it.
I’d say kills it, but this is supposed to be pet rescue, so I’d assume it cures it.
So, it looks like the next level is a gray looking underworld.
Big surprise.
That seems to be a standard set by Super Mario Brothers that every other platform game has
followed.
It even has similar sounding music in this level.
I’m also really impressed by the background that moves at a different rate than the foreground
here, which gives it a 3D sort of appearance.
It’s really quite stunning!
And check out this canon shooting big black bullets.
Gee, does that look familiar?
Skipping ahead a bit, it wasn’t until the next level that I finally found any sort of
power up hidden in one these boxes, but I never quite figured out what it did.
I guess that’s where a user’s manual would come in handy.
Eventually I found a pipe to go into, which took me to some other world.
And it appears to be an underwater world.
Well guys, I can without any doubt say that this game absolutely raises the bar for Plus/4
games.
This may very well be the best game ever made for the machine, and may never again be matched!
So a huge thumbs up for Pet Rescue!
And the last game we’re going to look at today is Sam’s Journey.
It comes in a really nice box from Protovision, with a nice printed manual, and it even comes
with a little treasure chest full of precious gems.
Now, of course, my copy comes on floppy disks.
This is something I really need to explain about this game.
The game comes on different media depending on whether you live in a PAL region like most
of Europe and Australia.
Or if you happen to live in an NTSC region like North America.
The game was originally designed on PAL systems and it comes on a cartridge.
And that cartridge just plugs into a stock system and that’s all you need to play the
game, besides a joystick.
Here’s the problem.
PAL runs at 25 frames per second.
And, there’s a lot of stuff in that frame that the CPU has to do you know, for each
frame.
And NTSC runs at 30 frames a second, and the CPU is just not fast enough to do all of the
things that they needed to do inside of each frame for this game.
So a compromise was made and the NTSC version will make use of a RAM expander such as this
one.
And since the stock power supply usually won't handle this, I'm going to be using my Nubrick,
which is a modern power supply replacement for the C64.
Ironically, it isn’t using the extra RAM in this box at all.
What it is using is the DMA hardware that allows faster copying of RAM from one location
to another to help speed up some of the processes.
It’s just enough to give the edge needed to make this work.
If you don’t have an original REU, you can also use some modern aftermarket products
like the 1541 ultimate which will emulate an REU.
Anyway, since the cartridge port will be occupied by a RAM expander, it was necessary to put
the game on floppy disk for the North American release.
Well, without further delay, let’s stick the disk in and try it out.
The intro alone is worthy of praise!
This is the kind of polish you’d expect from the demo scene.
All right, well lets start this game!
At this point I have to flip the disk over, this is where the cartridge version would
be a lot nicer!
There’s a bit of a backstory, showing Sam waking up in the middle of the night and walking
to his closet, to be attacked by a giant claw.
And I guess that’s where the journey begins.
There’s a little map showing the different levels that you’ll need to complete.
The first one is called Happy Grassland.
Sam can apparently pick up some objects, such as this rock.
There are different costumes laying around the place that give Sam different powers,
such as this pirate costume.
For example, this costume gives him the sword he can use to slash things.
Once you pass one of these flags, thats a checkpoint so if you die you go back to that
spot.
I would mention that there doesn’t appear to be any set number of lives.
So you never have to start back at the very beginning.
And here’s the ninja costume, which will allow Sam to climb walls.
So, moving on to the Deep Woods, let’s see what we have.
First thing I want to show you is this treasure chest.
These are scattered around the levels and usually contain some sort of power up.
But you have to open them and you can cut them with your sword along with a few other
ways.
Of course this didn’t help because it was the same costume I already had.
But yeah, if you don’t have a sword you can always open the chest by throwing a rock
at it.
Now this little thing is interesting.
It’s a trampoline.
Not only can you use it to reach high places, but you can pick it up and move it in case
you need to use it somewhere else.
There are also little cannons you can jump into a fire yourself out of.
Overall, this game is indeed a masterpiece.
It wins in every category, including graphics, musical scores, sound effects, and gameplay
itself.
It raises the bar once again for games on the Commodore 64.
In fact, to be honest this game actually looks like something from the 16-bit era of consoles.
For example, it looks like a game I might have expected to see on the Amiga or the Genesis
or something.
The gameplay itself is actually not really a clone of super Mario brothers, in fact,
I think if this game had existed around the same time I doubt Nintendo would have had
that much room to complain, and this game would have certainly given Super Mario Brothers
a run for its money.
So, a big thumbs up for Sam’s Journey.
And, so that about wraps it up.
I did want say I was really impressed with all 3 of the games that I showed on each of
their respective platforms.
And I think each one raised the bar on those platforms again.
And I know first hand how exciting it is to start programming a new game.
And you have all of these ideas and everything and you know you work on it so long and then
you know you kind of lose interest and then it never gets finished.
And that happens all of the time.
And so, to see a game like this actually brought to completion and polished like a professional
product would have been back in the 80s, you know that’s really a testament to the designers
and their enthusiasm for what they are doing, because they’re not going to get rich producing
something like this for an old platform.
But, it’s certainly nice to leave your mark on that platform.
And so, anyway, I definitely want to encourage more games for older platforms.
I’ve obviously got another one in the works myself but you probably won’t be seeing
that for a while.
So, that’s about it for the moment, so thanks for watching!